There is more than an undercurrent of a movement in the world to get rid of cars. By that I mean human driven cars. I've been reading articles and watching videos and it is obvious, not hidden at all, that those who run the world, or think they do, have decided to replace cars with driverless cars, probably within 10 years, even sooner.

Like Chuck, I will hold a steering wheel aloft while proclaiming "From my cold dead hands!"

__________________"When US gets nuked and NEMO is uninhabitable, I will make my way on foot to the gulf and live off red snapper and grapefruit"- Alex Linder

There is more than an undercurrent of a movement in the world to get rid of cars. By that I mean human driven cars. I've been reading articles and watching videos and it is obvious, not hidden at all, that those who run the world, or think they do, have decided to replace cars with driverless cars, probably within 10 years, even sooner.

Socialists have always hated cars because they enable privacy and increase freedom. Socialists always favor buses, or other mass transportation, and forcing people to use them.

There is more than an undercurrent of a movement in the world to get rid of cars. By that I mean human driven cars. I've been reading articles and watching videos and it is obvious, not hidden at all, that those who run the world, or think they do, have decided to replace cars with driverless cars, probably within 10 years, even sooner.

The technology is there and it works and is improving. Google is already, with government approval, using driverless cars in four states and the District of Columbia. Tesla is also involved, as is BMW, and pretty much every car manufacturer.

Will they succeed? It is difficult to see how, at least in the US. The US doesn't seem populated with people who would be willing to give up their right to drive. I grew up with muscle cars, sports cars, and large pickup trucks. I've owned all of these and have an affection for pickup trucks.

But, will they succeed? Yes, if they really want it, and we don't have a calamitous economic event (and we won't,) and if they persist, yes, they will succeed. When you are stubbornly driving your 8,000 lb SUV to work, in the one lane permitted to driven cars, fighting to average 12 miles an hour, burning $6.50 gas, and you look to your right (or left) and see three lanes of driverless cars streaming by at 75 miles an hour, in cars that get three times the mileage, and cost less, by far, than your SUV, through government subsidies, and you turn your attention back to driving just in time to feel the impact of the even larger SUV driving through your back bumper...then you will give up the SUV and move to a small driverless car, or at least your wife (well, soon to be ex-wife,) will move to a small driverless car with her new (geek) husband.

They will succeed by making it cheaper, and easier, and more convenient than the alternative. If they are willing to do this, then they will succeed.

And to repeat myself, the technology is there, it works, is safe, and is getting better. Do a Google search on "driverless cars" and read the articles. Then repeat the search with videos, and watch the videos.

Sorry folks.

Mike

You're gettin' a little Omega Man, there, scratchy. Jes sayin'...

Those knuckleheads can't even get HOV lanes to work. I could see the scenario you describe in the biggest cities, to an extent, perhaps, but even there that's a long, long time away. People aren't going to give up driving because a minority thinks they should, not without a protracted fight, as per guns.

Glad your boy is safe, Jimmy. The totaled brand new Porsche will be fodder for family gatherings for decades.

Thanks Donnie.

Fortunately, as more facts emerge, the situation was less serious than I originally thought and posted.

The Porsche was not brand new. It was a 2011 Panamera, and it did not roll. It merely ran off the road into a ditch and hit "several trees". My son exited the crashed car via the sun roof. He was not seriously injured, but went to the hospital for a CT scan, but the cause of his stupidity did not show up on the image.

He's scraped and banged and friction burned from the airbags and broken glass, but I think he mainly went to the hospital to avoid the embarrassment of going back home and explaining what he had done, which was basically loose control of the car at high speed in some loose gravel on the right shoulder of a two lane road, cross to the left shoulder and loose control again, cross back to the right shoulder and go off into the ditch.

He says he was going 80 or 90mph and the posted speed limit was 50. He was not drinking and somehow did not receive a traffic citation, which may be another the reason he decided to hightail it out of there to the hospital.

It sure scared me when his sister called to say he was in the hospital, but was OK. I remember asking "If he's OK, why is he in the hospital?" But apparently he is indeed OK, and hopefully a slightly improved driver.

My daughter's mother-in-law is apparently being a good sport about it, and claims to be happy to have a reason to buy a new car.

Like Chuck, I will hold a steering wheel aloft while proclaiming "From my cold dead hands!"

I've gotta tell you this story, and its true. I swear to god.

My high school friend had his '69 ChevyII Nova stolen and stripped of all its goodies (custom engine stuff).

He got the car back, and we rebuilt the engine with the insurance money. I was riding shotgun as we went out to an informal drag strip in an industrial area to test the car. As he slammed the shifter forward with his right hand to hit third gear, he pulled back slightly with his wheel hand and the steering wheel popped off, and he tossed it in the back seat and continued driving the car by pressing down on the nub of the steering column with the palm of his hand.

The thieves had apparently damaged the base of the steering wheel during the theft. We drove home, or to a nearby service station by attaching vise-grips to the steering column.

I don't know how fast a car like that can go in second gear, but when the steering wheel popped off it seemed to me like we were clipping right along.

Anyway, when you mentioned holding a steering wheel aloft, this is the image that came to mind. I'll never forget it. He just paused for a microsecond holding the steering wheel aloft before tossing it in the back seat.

It sure scared me when his sister called to say he was in the hospital, but was OK. I remember asking "If he's OK, why is he in the hospital?" But apparently he is indeed OK, and hopefully a slightly improved driver.

Yeah, when the rear wheels break loose it always makes like very interesting.

__________________"When US gets nuked and NEMO is uninhabitable, I will make my way on foot to the gulf and live off red snapper and grapefruit"- Alex Linder

The inefficiency of traffic controls always baffled me. What's the point of good gas mileage or smaller cars when one idiot crossing the street can stop hundreds of cars at a pedestrian-activated stoplight? Or maybe the pedestrian just pressed the button for the hell of it.

European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and warning signs

Quote:

Psychologists have long revealed the senselessness of such exaggerated regulation. About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by drivers. What's more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.

"Unsafe is safe"

The result is that drivers find themselves enclosed by a corset of prescriptions, so that they develop a kind of tunnel vision: They're constantly in search of their own advantage, and their good manners go out the window.

Of course this intelligent model would fail in North America, where drivers are about as far from "brethren" as possible, where road-rage is more the operating principle in intra-driver relations.

The model would neither be possible in Asia, where the drivers are acknowledged to be among the worst in the world.

[this Eric Peters writes good stuff, he's the main car guy posted at LewRockwell.com. his point is cars, and ever more so tractors, are becoming DCMA software that you more rent than own. they want to force you into their system for any changes or fixes]

Nothing Runs You Like a Deere. . .

By eric - May 23, 2017445963

How long before they bring back prima nocta?

It’s a serious question.

Other aspects of feudalism have been part of everyday life for so long now we hardly notice them – and even consider it normal – just as the peasants of 500 years ago probably did. For instance, just like the kings of 500 years ago, Uncle claims ownership of all land under his jurisdiction; we are merely tenants who are suffered to rent the land for as long as we continue to pay the annual tributum.

We are allowed to use the land as the sovereign sees fit – and not otherwise. If we use it in ways forbidden, the king – whoops, Uncle – will punish us. He can also just take it from us via another noxious doctrine – that of eminent domain.

But until recently, we at least owned our incidentals – the small-potatoes stuff, like the clothes on our backs. Our cars.

Our tractors, certainly.

Not anymore.

Not if it’s a John Deere tractor.

When you buy one, you’re actually purchasing an “implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.“ Basically, a rental contract. With the difference being that even when the rental is paid off, you are still bound by the contract.

Yes, really.

It has to do with two things – the code that runs the tractor (yes, them too) and the ownership claims to that code asserted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

You may recall the ruckus that erupted about a year ago when the car companies floated the idea that even though you bought their car, it was still their code that ran the thing – and this code remained proprietary. That is, their property. To “tamper” with anything that could conceivably affect the code, their lawyers proposed, would violate both the warranty and copyright laws. Effectively making the car not your property, no matter the name on the title.

A DMCA exception was granted for cars – but probably only because of the rictus of outrage that erupted; rightly so.

Tractors, on the other hand. . .

Probably because there are fewer farmers – and most of them are wholly owned subsidiaries of massive Big Ag cartels, working the fields on behalf of Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland, et al.

But not just them, either.

When you buy a Deere, you must sign a licensing agreement (see here) that contains what amounts to the rental agreement. It basically says that you – the “owner” – will not perform unauthorized repairs or modifications; that you will only permit an authorized Deere technician to touch “your” tractor. This comes in mighty handy when you are out in the field cutting hay and something breaks and you need to get the thing running again right now . . . not next Thursday, when the Deere dude can schedule you an authorized appointment.

Naturally, this is all about the money. That – and the control.

The money part is objectionable – but at least it is just the normal human lust for gain.

The car companies have been trying for years to force you to spend money at the dealership by making cars so complicated that almost no one without a mechanical and electrical engineering degree and some very righteous tools can successfully perform anything more involved than an oil change – and they are working on that.

The next step was to not use open source code to run the computer (ECU) that runs the car and then restrict access to this “proprietary” code by making it readable only by one of their diagnostic machines. Without the ability to read the code, figuring out what ails a computer-controlled car is almost impossible. Independent shops now often have to spend huge sums to buy the authorized diagnostic equipment and that cost often exceeds what they can make performing repairs. Hence it’s not worth buying the machine. Hence, they cannot repair that particular brand of car.

Off to the dealership you go.

The third step was to use legal threats and mumbo-jumbo – the DMCA – to make it illegal to even try to repair the car yourself, unauthorized.

Touch the car and you void the warranty. And if that’s not enough to dissuade you, then maybe they’ll sic the cops on you or “copyright” violation.

It’s what they had in mind, certainly. And Deere – and makers of other non-DCMA-exempted things with computers and code – which is becoming just about everything, down to toothbrushes, too – surely intends the same.

The better to mulct you with, my pretty.

But the control part is the most loathsome. It is part of the synergistic bum’s rush – you can almost feel the walls closing in – toward a neo-feudal, company town kind of life in which you never own anything, control almost nothing and spend your days toeing the line and doing as you are told.

Even if you avoid debt, you still must constantly pay eternal rent to remain on “your” land, in “your” home. If you have kids, you will be instructed how they’ll be raised; your job is to serve as kind of wet nurse/chauffeur. Your car will soon drive itself – according to programming imparted by others – your owners. And forget about having a peek under the hood. An alarm will probably be triggered, an environmental or saaaaaaaaaaafety SWAT team summoned.

GM is getting whacked harder than any of the major automakers by the industry-wide plunge in car sales, as Americans switch in ever larger numbers from cars to “trucks,” which include pickups, van, SUVs and crossovers. In the first half of 2017, GM’s car sales in the US plunged 19%, and in June 38%.

The rest of the industry (without GM) booked declines in car sales of “only” 10% in the first half and 9% in June.

They haven’t been selling cars as fast as years past… and the inventory of unsold new cars is exploding! Just In 2017, car sales are down 70% in some segments.

And while the car dealerships would love it if everyone would buy a new car at full retail price… The fact remains that they’ve been forced by a huge backlog of inventory to quietly advertise massively discounted deals online.